Listosaurus Rex

There are a few things that I tend to wax nostalgic about.  Any victory of the Redskins over the Cowboys would qualify, as would any Billy Joel record my dad played for me as I was growing up.  But another thing I that I have countless warm memories of is computer games.  As far back as I can remember, these interactive adventures were my greatest pastime and the focus of my free time.

I’ve sinced moved on to bigger and better things, like “console gaming” and “having a life” (just kidding), but I will always browse any Greatest Computer Games list to see if any of my all time favorites have been included.  Recently, I stumbled across a particularly professionally-done one on IGN.  Here are the final results of the countdown:

1. X-COM: UFO Defense (1994)
2. Civilization IV (2005)
3. Star Wars TIE Fighter (1994)
4. Rome Total War (2004)
5. Fallout (1997)
6. Starcraft (1998)
7. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)
8. SimCity 2000 (1993)
9. Half-Life 2 (2004)
10. Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings (1999)
11. Sid Meier’s Pirates (1987)
12. Battlefield 1942 (2002)
13. System Shock 2 (1999)
14. Company of Heroes (2006)
15. Grim Fandango (1998)
16. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
17. World of Warcraft (2004)
18. Call of Duty (2003)
19. Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness (1995)
20. Deus Ex (2000)
21. MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995)
22. The Sims (2000)
23. Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004)
24. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six (1998)
25. IL-2 Sturmovik (2001)

The list straddles between picking influential games, games that were great at their time, and games that are most fun today.  For example, The Sims 2 is a more complete, fulfilling experience than the original, but The Sims blew everyone’s mind by looking good and playing better.  In fact, its addictive life-management gameplay wowed people so much that it outsold any game in history.

I was a bit surprised to see the pick at number one, but I can’t call it a bad pick by any stretch.  I played the shareware version to death back in the day.  It was one of those games I begged my parents to buy the full version for me, but they never budged.  I’ll have to go hunting online and see if I can find a torrent legal download of it somewhere.

But for any lifelong computer game fan, the real satisfaction from this sort of list comes from seeing your favorite games receiving props.  And here is where the list excel.  Warcraft 2 was my obsession for months on end.  Modern RTS games may improve gameplay and graphics, but none will ever steal my heart like Tides of Darkness did.  It was dramatic, exciting, engrossing, beautiful, and hilarious — everything my young mind wanted out of a game.  The map editor alone got double-to-triple hours worth of play from me, and blowing up critters remains my favorite Easter egg in any game.  Even Warcraft 2’s transcendent follow-up, Starcraft, didn’t engross me the way the humans’ and orcs’ epic struggles did.

But the only game to give Warcraft 2 a run for its money was Age of Empires 2.  Epic in scope and brilliant in execution, Age of Kings revived my love of RTS gameplay to a level it hadn’t been since the peak of my Warcraft 2 obsession.  It made up for having only one unique unit-set by having thirteen distinct, balanced civilizations to tinker with.

I’m also glad TIE Fighter is getting props, though #3 might be a stretch.  There was just something so satisfying about flying around TIEs and taking out X-Wings, completing secret objectives for the Emporer and taking orders from Vader.

There are of course a few oddball picks (IL-2 Sturmovik?), and Starcraft as low as #6 will pass as travesty in some circles, but overall this list hits all the right nerves and includes plenty of deserving classics.  Of the twenty-five, I’ve played fourteen of the games (or their similar predecessors or follow-ups), and I now have a hankering to find down some of the picks I missed (Deus Ex, Fallout) to see if they’re worth their reputation.

Including games that have come bundled with systems, here is a list of the top fifteen bestselling video games of all time, as of March 2008:

1. Super Mario Bros. - NES - 40 million copies *
2. Tetris - Game Boy - 33 million copies *
3. Pokemon Red/Blue - Game Boy - 20.08 million copies
4. Super Mario World - SNES - 20 million copies *
5. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES - 18 million copies
6. Wii Sports - Wii - 17.85 million copies *
7. Nintendogs -DS - 17.79 million copies
8. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - PS2 - 15 million copies
9. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec - PS2 - 14.87 million copies
10. Pokemon Gold/Silver - Game Boy - 14.51 million copies
11. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - DS - 14.17 million opies
12. Super Mario Land - Game Boy - 14 million copies
13. New Super Mario Bros. - DS - 13.14 million copies
14. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire - GBA - 13 million copies
15. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - PS2 - 12 million copies

* - game included with a system as a bundle

Nabbing all of the top seven spots are games from Nintendo consoles, including Wii Sports at #6 from the current generation, which is sure to jump at least to #3 by the time Nintendo releases its next console.

Topping the list is Super Mario Bros., which gets an enormous amount of help from the fact that it was included with the system, not to mention the fact that it is routinely cited as the best game of all time by web-sites and other publications. However, Super Mario Bros. 3 at #5 shows that you don’t need those things to sell ridiculously well as a Mario game. Also, #12 on this list is a remake of #1, just emphasizing how marketable the game is without the bundling.

At #2 is Tetris, also widely acclaimed as among the greatest and most influential games ever. Have you ever met someone who doesn’t like Tetris? If so, they’re probably a cynic or lying.

Then, at #3 is Pokemon, the greatest video game sensation of them all. I remember well when every kid would be playing it during recess at school, while eating at Burger King, while waiting in the dentist’s office — everywhere, for that matter. It doesn’t surprise me at all that it’s so high on the list.

Standing strong at #4 is another bundled game, Super Mario World, perhaps my favorite game ever. It remained among the most recognized and beloved games of the 16-bit era.

Taking the fifth spot is Super Mario Bros. 3. This one surprised me more than any game out of the top ten. Though I know it is one of the most widely known and loved games of all time, I didn’t know it sold at a volume that almost matched Pokemon. I guess I’ve always underestimated the amount of NES’s that were sold.

At sixth and rising is Wii Sports. The Wii continues to sell out just as shipment is received, and goes for about $150 more than retail on sites like Amazon and ebay, despite the fact that they system has been out for well over a year. There’s no end in sight to the massive demand. It could potentially jump its way to #2 or #1 by the time this console generation is over. If you don’t believe that, think of this: The newest console generation is about a year and a half old, so a little less than a third over. Tripling the number of copies sold by Wii Sports places it firmly at number one. It’s unlikely that the Wii will continue selling at the rate it is for a whole five years, but it’s certainly not an impossibility.

At seventh is the latest cutesy, handheld phenomenon, Nintendogs. Despite rave reviews and massive numbers, I’m not completely impressed with it. Pokemon was a really substantial game, a perfect balance of simplicity and depth, and I’m not sure Nintendogs quite matches it. However, I haven’t had extensive playing time with it, so I’m not sure.

Nabbing eighth and ninth are two classic PS2 games. Vice City was controversial but massively loved and enjoyed. It had very much of a cool factor to it, meaning adults and young adults weren’t hesitant to get their hands on it, unlike Pokemon. Gran Turismo also has a cool, authentic factor to it. It was so detailed with its depiction of sports cars and racing, and earned such rave reviews, that it was snatched up by millions.

At tent, eleventh, and fourteenth are more Pokemon games, a few years removed from the immense cultural machine that was the Pokemon fad when Red and Blue were released. Nonetheless, consumers still seem to come out in droves to pick up any Pokemon-related product. Pokemon games usually receive favorable reviews, which certainly helps.

Nabbing twelfth is a remake of the #1 game on this list, except in hand-held format. The game created quite a buzz when it came out and the Game Boy was the latest big thing in video games. Only Tetris, #2, was bigger at the time.

Taking thirteenth is another Mario game, which gained a lot of consumer recognition because of the title’s similarity to #1 on this list. As you discover more and more about video games, it becomes more and more clear how all-encompassing Mario’s impact on the video game industry and market has been.

Finally, at number fifteen, we have San Andreas, one of the most controversial games of all time with the “Hot Coffee” scandal. However, it is one of the most critically acclaimed games of its generation, earning impeccable review scores from many game publications, including the beloved Platinum Award from the magazine of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the Holy Grail of review awards.

Here is a breakdown by system:

• Game Boy: 4 games (26.7%)
• PS2: 3 games (20%)
• DS: 3 games (20%)
• NES: 2 games (13.3%)
• GBA: 1 game (6.7%)
• Wii: 1 game (6.7%)
• SNES: 1 game (6.7%)

Discuss: Are these the games you expected to see on the list?

Pretty much every major video game site or blog put together big “best-of” lists for the last major console as the next generation of games started to come out.  The most interesting of these was the Gamecube lists, for a few reasons.  First of all, it had the fewest cross-platform games, making the lists the most insular.  Next, the Gamecube games continue to live on because of the backward compatibility and ‘Cube controller compatibility of the Wii.  Finally, Nintendo has always had the most obsessive, hardcore fans, the type of fans who will compulsively rank and debate their favorites because they love them so much.

I found a few lists I liked across the net and decided to assemble them into one ultimate, comprehensive top ten list.  There was a suprising amount of consitency, though nearly every list had its unique picks not seen on the other lists.  With some number crunching and weighting in a spreadsheet, I was able to come upon a final order for the games.

Without further ado, the lists, and my tabulation of the concensus Top 10 Greatest Gamecube games.

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ThePhoenix.net, a news site, has selected the 20 Greatest Bosses in Video Games, which includes computer games along with all consoles.

Game bosses are a crucial part of video games. Often singlehandedly, they separate the good from the great and the great from the best ever. A great final boss and ending can lift an otherwise mediocre game to memorable status, while an anticlimactic final showdown can demote a good game to soon-to-be-forgotten.

This list is poorly designed, requiring you to click through twenty slow-loading, ad-bloated pages to view every entry. So here is the complete list in a much easier to view format.

1. Shodan - System Shock 2 (PC)
2. Sephiroth - Final Fantasy VII (PS)
3. Bowser - Mario games (various consoles)
4. Mother Brain - Super Metroid (SNES)
5. Mike Tyson - Punch Out! (NES)
6. (tie) Don Lechuck - Secret of Monkey Island (PC)
   Purple Tentacle - Day of the Tentacle (PC)
7. Abobo - Double Dragon (NES)
8. The Colossi - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
9. Red Falcon - Contra (NES)
10. Ganondorf - Zelda games (various consoles)
11. ‘Bark at the Moon’ - Guitar Hero (PS2)
12. Foxhound - Metal Gear Solid (PS)
13. The Cyberdemon - Doom (PC)
14. Vega - Street Fighter II (various consoles)
15. Hitler - Wolfenstein 3D (PC)
16. Metalman - Mega Man 2 (NES)
17. The Hydra - God of War (PS2)
18. Goro - Mortal Kombat (various consoles)
19. Shredder - TMNT games (NES and SNES)
20. Dr. Robotnik - Sonic games (Sega Genesis)

I have quite mixed feelings about this list. I’ve never played System Shock 2, but I’ve seen the ending on YouTube, and if anyone is going to beat Sephiroth for the top slot, Shodan is a good pick. She’s the HAL of video games, a reflection on the impossibility of perfection and the importance of warmth and soul in the world.

And yet, there will never be a greater boss, in my opinion, than Sephiroth. His connection to Cloud, main protagonist, is dark and chilling, he famously kills Aeris, the most lovable character in the game, halfway through the game, and finally faces Cloud and crew in an unforgettable, apocalyptic showdown at the end of the game.

Bowser is the boss archetype, and is a necessary inclusion. I like his spot at #3.

I also think Mother Brain at #4 is a great inclusion. Super Metroid featured such a minimalist plot, but the conclusion was nothing short of epic and tear-jerking, especially with the gutsy move of forcing the player to lose to Mother Brain.

Mike Tyson at #5 is also a great pick. He’s killer-hard to beat and there’s a sense of ultimate around him, making it a satisfying accomplishment to tackle him. It sort of makes me wish that Michael Jordan from the original NBA Street would have gotten a mention, because I felt the same way about him as a sweet final boss in a sports game.

After the Top 5, the list starts to lose steam. Though I haven’t played some of these games, I’ve also never heard a lot of the bosses mentioned among memorable bosses.

I’m glad to see Hitler from Wolfenstein 3D included, though. Let me tell you, after going through an entire game hunting down Nazis in giant dungeons and labyrinths, it was darn satisfying to face Hitler in a robot suit as the final encounter. He was no piece of cake, either.

One odd choice is Guitar Hero song ‘Bark at the Moon.’ I like the concept of having a Guitar Hero song as a “boss” of sorts, but I think Free Bird from GH2 would have been a better pick, and also not as high up.

I think this list is a bit too modern-weighted. I would have loved to see Odd-Eye or Zeon from personal favorite Shining Force II (Genesis), and certainly Kefka from Final Fantasy VI (aka III on SNES) is a notch above the likes of Goro, Metalman, and Vega. Isn’t Psycho Mantis a more notorious boss from Metal Gear Solid?

I also think there aren’t enough RPG bosses here. No genre has mastered the epic, sinister, and difficult (all three important traits for a boss) quite like the RPG.

The mini-articles that accompany each boss are interesting, but not all that great. Overall, I was a bit disappointed by this list because the execution does not live up to the excellent concept for the list. Though it has pretty decent picks, its design and writing are a bit lacking.

I stumbled across this enormous list of The 100 Best NES Games Ever. It is quite comprehensive and excellent, featuring blurbs from several writers about each of the games. Here is their top ten:

1. Super Mario Bros. 3
2. Final Fantasy
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Mega Man 3
5. Mega Man 2
6. Bubble Bobble
7. Contra
8. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
9. Battletoads
10. Super Mario Bros

Kudos to them for being different from pretty much every video game site on the net and picking something besides the original Mario Bros. as their number one.

The site has a bit of a hardcore gamer spin to it, as opposed to someone like me, who’d classify himself as a “casual emulator” of NES games. The inclusion of the maddeningly hard Battletoads in the top ten is proof alone of that. But I think you have to be a bit hardcore to produce a list as extensive and detailed as theirs.

As someone who can really only list a couple dozen NES games off the top of my head, I think this list is an excellent resource at beginning to delve into the substantial library of old Nintendo gems. I plan to go scan some ROM sites tonight and check some of these games out.

Particularly cool is that they have plenty of little-heralded games up near the top with the big-name classics like Zelda, Mario, and FF. At #11 they have TMNT 2, at #17 they have something called Maniac Mansion which I’ve never heard of, at #28 a Duck Tales platformer which I never knew existed, and at #27 the generically-titled but awesome-looking robot-baseball game Base Wars. I look forward to trying all of these hidden gems out.

Funny, comprehensive, and well-done, this list is worth a look. You just might want to set aside an hour if you want to read everything they’ve written. Here’s the link again.